XXV

The wagons rolled through some narrow passes further down the mountains into a large camp consisting of structures with tiled roofs, palisade walls and gates.

It was some kind of encampment, Yoreno thought, perched up against the mountain.

It wasn’t long before the wagons were stopped and they were roughly hauled out and pushed toward a structure of bricks. As Yoreno was marched inside, he glanced about.

The chamber was relatively clean and dry with hay scattered about the floor. There were buckets in one of the corners. He turned up his nose at them, knowing what they were for.

The guards took the chains from the floors and shackled his ankle. As Yoreno turned, still shivering but alert, Sorika was marched in next, followed by the others.

No one said anything as they all glanced around quietly.

Mai was shackled behind her back, her chains wrapping about her in a figure eight pattern tight enough to keep her from being able to move freely.

“How is she supposed to do anything while she’s shackled like that?” Sorika asked.

The guard stepped up to her and backhanded Sorika in the face.

“Hey!” Dell bellowed. “Hit me!”

And he was hit, in the stomach. The knight bowled over with a heavy grunt. He wheezed and coughed while backing away, unable to do anything.

“If you want your mage friend to eat,” the guard said, a tall burly fellow, his face not uncovered since they had come to this encampment, “then you can spoon it into her mouth!”

Once they were all shackled, the guards left them alone.

“Hey,” Mai said. “Yoreno, are you all right?”

He was sore and cold, but he nodded. He would be all right, though he wasn’t sure about the pain in his chest. Perhaps it would flare up again if he tried to exert himself. He had no idea if his bones were cracked or broken.

Images of his sister and his parents came into Yoreno’s mind. He had to get out of this alive—they all did. For Dantera’s sake as well.

“Good,” she said with a smile.

“How can you smile in a situation like this?” Lev asked sullenly. “I can’t believe we got captured.”

“I’m smiling because I’m happy, Lev. Yoreno is alive and he’s well. Did you not see the way they beat him at the wagons?”

“Sorry,” he said. “I was busy staring at the back of our captors’ heads while they whipped and beat me.

“Are you okay?” Dell asked Sorika.

She nodded. “You?”

“I’m fine.”

“I didn’t think it would end like this,” Dorrin said.

“End?” Yoreno asked. “What ‘end’? Nothing has ended, Dorrin!” He pointed an accusatory finger, his tone more snappish than he was used to hearing from himself. “Remember that.”

There was a pause between them all as everyone seemed to take in Yoreno’s sharp command to their newest member. Really, he wasn’t a member—more like a supporter, but all the same, he was a part of the party.

Dell glanced about. “We need to find a way to escape.”

“Even if we make it out of this hole,” Lev said, “the structure is surrounded by a metal gate. You saw it.”

“Yeah,” Dell said. “But there’s other ways out of here—I’m certain of it.”

“What do you suggest?” Mai asked. “I can’t do anything with my hands bound like this.”

“They knew that too,” Yoreno said, then he gritted his teeth. This whole situation was starting to make him angry.

What if Dantera needed their help? She could be wounded or lost, or—

“Maybe we can find a way to get you out of that,” Dell said as he moved up to Mai. He grabbed her chains, shook them a bit.

“Owe! That hurts.”

“Sorry.”

“They’re pretty tight,” Sorika said. “You’ll never get those chains off shaking them about like that.”

“We could cut her hands off,” Lev suggested.

Sorika gave him a withering look. “That’s not even funny, since once we got her arms free, Mai would still need her hands to work magic, fool.”

Lev shrugged. “I guess you have a point.”

“Fortunately,” Sorika said, and then she reached into her coat sleeve, “I have this.” She pulled out a lock pick.

Dell’s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. “Sor, you sneaky little—“

“I know,” she said with a smirk. “You can thank me later.”

“Wait,” Yoreno said.

“What?” Dorrin asked as he came forward. “What do you mean ‘wait’? Don’t you want to get out of here, Yoreno?”

“Of course I do,” he said. “But there’s a whole camp of them out there. Once we bust out of here, then what?”

No one said anything.

“We need a plan,” he said. “A strategy that will ensure we get out.”

“We don’t even have any weapons, Lev said.”

“Exactly!” Yoreno added. “We can’t just break out of here and be on our merry way.”

“You’re right,” Dorrin said. He had a notable look of dejection on his face.

“Don’t be so down,” Yoreno said. “We’re all alive and relatively unhurt.” He tapped the tracker’s shoulder, prompting a nod from the red-haired fellow.

“Relatively?” Mai asked.

Sorika nodded. “He took a pretty good beating.”

“You said you were all right,” she accused.

“I am,” he said. “I’m standing here, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you’re all right. Now out with it. What’s wrong?”

He touched his chest subconsciously. They still hadn’t taken off his armor. Surely the guards would come back soon to relieve them of their plates. It was valuable gear—all of it.

Mai’s armor provided magical bonuses to her abilities. Yoreno and Dellwyn’s armor was covered in runes that reacted to weapons when they came into contact with the runes. And Sorika’s armor certainly gave her status buffs which enhanced her rogue abilities.

“My chest hurts,” Yoreno said. “It’s a little hard to breath.”

Mai looked at him, then frowned. “Without my hands, I can’t do anything. I can’t even give you a diagnosis.”

“I’m all right,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t lift anything too heavy, though.”

“Like our chamber pots?” Lev asked as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

Yoreno rolled his eyes. “At least we have you to keep our spirits up when we fall into a pinch.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“Which part?” Dell asked, “the part about you being here to keep our spirits up or this being a pinch?”

Lev looked at him with a grin. “I was going to say the second one, but not that you mention it—“

“Anyway,” Yoreno cut in. “Sorika, make sure you hide that lock pick, all right? I’m pretty sure the guards are going to come back for the rest of our gear.”

She nodded.

“Now let’s start wracking our brains for a way out of here.”

They all nodded with intent and purpose.

“Some shoddy prison like this won’t stop the Emblazoned Party,” Dell said. “This is just another story in our adventures.”

Lev smirked. “Hells yes!”

Yoreno was glad to see that his friends had high spirits about their situation. Nevertheless there were probably a few hundred warriors in this camp. It was a serious problem that Yoreno had—at least for the time being—no idea how to get around.